Kerb Camden - Food Trader Structures

The Halo Group designed and built 34 semi permanent food trader structures for Kerb at Camden Market. We takes a look at the history of the market and features behind the scenes video footage from the project.

Camden Lock is one of the world’s most famous markets and London’s largest. The now iconic retail destination started life as a cluster of craft workshops by the Regent’s Canal and has evolved to become one of London’s most important nerve centres of artisan creativity and trading. The trading history of Camden can be traced back to the early 70s, at the time housing a total of just 16 traders. Today Camden Market is home to hundreds of small businesses bringing to the area the multicultural diversity that personifies London town and attracts 28 million visitors a year. The market has a rich musical heritage with legendary gigs at Dingwalls (located within the market) changing London’s music scene forever, bringing rock and punk to London. These venues were beloved by counter culture bands, including The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Blondie. The fashion world is also no stranger to Camden Market. Fashion labels such as Eine Kleine, English Eccentrics and BodyMap all started with stalls at the market and Wayne Hemmingway’s Red or Dead shoe empire was also started there. By the mid-80s, The Daily Express had named Camden Lock ‘London’s trendiest Sunday hang-out’ forever consolidating its status as one of London’s most important landmarks.

In latter years, West Yard at Camden has become renowned on the street food scene and features the capital’s best-known and most innovative traders offering a unique eating and drinking experience. The site is currently operated by legendary gastronomic trail-blazers Kerb, working in partnership with Camden Market in a fitting evolution for this trendsetting location. Time had however inevitably taken its toll. The Market was in need of a revamp. This is where the latest chapter in the history of Camden Market began. Enter The Halo Group…

The Halo Group specialises in the design and build of temporary structures. Working with Kerb (the operators) and Camden Market (the client), we developed plans for the regeneration of the current site, replacing the existing steel frame market stalls with 34 revolutionary temporary buildings. Designed and pre-fabricated in our London workshop, these were assembled onsite.

This was a legacy project for The Halo Group, Kerb and Camden and represented a prestigious opportunity to contribute to the very fabric of London. The trader stands and overall site design helped reignite the public’s passion for Camden Market’s West Yard. Visitor flow & functionality were key drivers in the project and overall site design to alleviate pinch points and over-crowding within the market.

The project saw the regeneration of the 8,000 square foot West Yard food court. The Halo Group was appointed as the principal designer where we used our modular steel structure to create each unit. Premium materials such as Corian were used to create the cladding for durability, which is a first for a project of this kind. The following video shows how we constructed these amazing temporary buildings throughout a 4 week build period.